Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Expanding Access and Building the Future of Care at Ascension with Eduardo Conrado

Transcript

Expanding Access and Building the Future of Care at Ascension with Eduardo Conrado · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  - There's a small circle of people who truly
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  - understand what it takes to lead a health
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  - system right now. The decisions are enormous.
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  - The variables are constantly shifting, and the stakes
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  - of getting a call wrong don't stay contained.
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  - That's not a complaint. It's a structural reality.
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  - And it's why the most effective c suite
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  - leaders are deliberate about where they go to
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  - pressure test their thinking.
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  - Becker's fourteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable
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  - brings together more than 1,500
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  - executive level attendees
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  - and nearly 400 speakers for four days built
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  - around growth, financial sustainability,
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  - workforce strategy, and the leadership questions that don't
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  - have easy answers.
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  - Join us November second through the fifth in
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  - Chicago.
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  - For the agenda and event details,
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  - visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  - and click on the events tab in the
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  - upper right.
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  - This is Laura Dirdo with the Becker's Healthcare
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  - podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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  - Eduardo O'Conrado, president and chief executive officer of
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  - Ascension. Eduardo, it was a pleasure to have
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  - you on the podcast today. Thanks for the
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  - invite, Laura. Absolutely. Now I'm excited to have
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  - you on the podcast because I know, you
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  - know, Ascension is doing some really amazing things,
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  - and you've been a great leader there. But
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  - before we dive in, can you just tell
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  - us a little bit more about yourself and
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  - the health system? Perfect. So I've been with
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  - Ascension for ten years, initially on the board,
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  - seven years in the management team. I was
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  - the the president for three years.
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  - And, today, I think, is my hundred and
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  - third day as CEO.
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  - Amazing. So,
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  - let's jump right in here. Could you tell
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  - us a little bit about your first hundred
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  - days? What has stood out to you as
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  - president and CEO of Ascension? One of the
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  - nice things of being the president first for
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  - three years and then kind of transitioning to
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  - CEO is just
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  - a continuation of the strategies that we've been
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  - working on. And we've been focusing around patient
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  - experience,
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  - associate engagement, diversification of our portfolio,
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  - you know, quality and safety in terms of
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  - just the foundation of what we do. And
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  - then as we kind of look at how
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  - we serve the communities,
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  - how do we
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  - shift our portfolio to be more ambulatory? So
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  - you've been seeing a lot of the movements
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  - in either divestitures, but lately on the acquisition
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  - front.
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  - That's amazing to hear. And, you know, I
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  - think that ambulatory strategy is something that so
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  - many health systems right now are trying to
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  - figure out and dig deeper into, and you've
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  - made a huge investment in ambulatory. And,
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  - I'm curious, when you think about that strategy,
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  - what about,
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  - making that leap in becoming more of an,
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  - health system with more ambulatory
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  - facilities and put footprint is exciting to you,
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  - and what makes you nervous? Well, so we
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  - started this four years ago when we started
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  - looking at all the segments in health care
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  - and the growth.
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  - And then so we thought that the inpatient
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  - side was kinda having flat growth,
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  - and our strategy was to make sure that
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  - we increase the acuity in the hospital.
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  - But we saw also a migration towards ambulatory,
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  - at home settings,
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  - ASCs,
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  - imaging,
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  - outpatient PT, you name it.
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  - Then COVID happened, and that even accelerated even
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  - more. And then so here we are now,
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  - you know, four years later when we started
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  - kind of looking at, at the strategy.
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  - We are seeing probably, like, a 20%
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  - CAGR
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  - on the ambulatory,
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  - settings that we've put put in place.
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  - And then last year, we even stepped further
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  - back, and we said, hey. We're not growing
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  - fast enough on the ambulatory,
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  - surgery center space, and then we did the
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  - definitive agreement to, acquire Amsearch.
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  - And that's gonna transform us. It's gonna make
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  - us, probably, the third largest ASC platform in
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  - The US,
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  - which will enable to accelerate our 10 markets
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  - that we're in, but but also in the
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  - other 25 states that Amsearch has presence, you
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  - know, serve as a growth engine for independent,
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  - physicians and also for other nonprofits.
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  - That's amazing to hear. And, you know, what
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  - a a huge and transformational time for the
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  - health system.
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  - I'm curious. What are some of the operational
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  - decisions and strategic investments that are driving the
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  - momentum around Ascension's
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  - strong financial results from the first half of
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  - the year in 2026. Can you talk a
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  - little bit about that and how it really
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  - dovetails into your overall strategy? Sure. So we
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  - we looked at the operating model. Just, you
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  - know, how do we run efficiently? How do
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  - we drive out into a proper site of
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  - care? And then how do we manage a
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  - revenue cycle? That to me, that was just
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  - the basics in terms of how do we
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  - have a consistent way to operate across all
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  - the ministries that we're in. Then we said,
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  - you know, we wanna be able to be
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  - high quality.
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  - So we focus on on that space, continue
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  - focus. We We wanna be able to be
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  - the preferred side of work,
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  - for associates.
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  - So we focus on retention and engagement,
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  - and then we wanna be the frictionless system,
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  - in all our communities. So we focus around
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  - consumer and patient experience. And then so we've
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  - been seeing pretty much all our scores set
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  - in the right direction.
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  - That eventually, if you get all that right,
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  - it translates into financial performance. Right? And then
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  - we looked at the portfolio itself,
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  - and that's what we've been kind of doing
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  - a lot of our investment is transforming that
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  - portfolio.
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  - I think it matches payer preference, but it
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  - also matches,
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  - patient preference. And then so we've probably done
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  - over $2,000,000,000 turnaround,
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  - over the last few years, and the momentum
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  - continues into this year. Oh, that's significant. And,
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  - you know, I can imagine exciting to be
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  - leading an organization,
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  - with that type of momentum in growing,
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  - overall. Now how is Ascension redesigning care to
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  - better serve Medicaid and uninsured patients and expand
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  - across the continuum of care? Perfect. That's a
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  - great question. We serve 1,100,000
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  - lives in our communities that are either medic
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  - Medicaid or uninsured.
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  - And then so we've been looking at, you
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  - know, utilization,
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  - high utilization of ED.
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  - That means that we have to step back
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  - and look at the data and, you know,
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  - what's the main cause for that. Part of
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  - it is access to primary care in the
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  - community,
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  - solving some of the trans transportation needs that
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  - they have.
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  - There's some,
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  - access to pharmaceuticals.
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  - And then so, you know, Addison had a
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  - quote that he didn't invent the light bulb
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  - by optimizing the candle, and that's the approach
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  - that we're taking. We step back and said,
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  - okay. You know, we need to do it
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  - differently. So we're looking at how do we
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  - partner with HQACs,
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  - in a tighter manner in the community, complementing
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  - our community clinics. We got Dispensary of Hope,
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  - which is,
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  - access for the uninsured patients for pharmaceuticals.
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  - How do we expand the presence of Dispensary
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  - of Hope across all the markets that make
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  - it easy to have access for for all
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  - of our patients.
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  - The need for using the ED should only
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  - be for, you know, high level emergencies,
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  - moving to have ASCs in the community also
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  - to serve their needs. Eventually, when you think
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  - about two years down the road, which you
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  - see better attachment to primary care, better attachment
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  - to access to,
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  - Dispensary Hope, which you see a decrease in
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  - utilization of the ED,
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  - which should actually all the clinical KPIs, which
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  - we should see a healthier community.
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  - And over the long term, lower cost to
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  - serve the patient, which I think matches the
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  - community need, but also what the government wants
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  - us to do.
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  - That is really amazing to hear. And, you
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  - know, it's so important to have that right
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  - side of service and that type of care
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  - available and accessible to patients, especially those who
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  - are Medicaid beneficiaries and uninsured patients who sometimes
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  - have trouble accessing care.
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  - And when you think about that whole,
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  - continuum and and everything that's,
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  - involved in that, it also includes,
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  - changing patient behavior of how, like you said,
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  - not going to the ED for everything unless
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  - it's appropriate. So how do you help communicate
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  - that out to the community and just make
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  - sure that people are understanding what's all available
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  - to them now that you've got so many
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  - options and opportunities?
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  - Perfect. That's a great question. So, you know,
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  - part of it is navigation. I think as
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  - patient come in through the the system, how
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  - do we navigate into the purpose etiquette and
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  - then communicate that? I think with the digital
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  - tools, we also are able to kind of
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  - get an amplifying voice.
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  - But a good example in terms of how
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  - do we get out to the community, we're
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  - about to ramp up our
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  - mission at home,
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  - which,
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  - we did three of them last year. We're
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  - gonna do 16 in May. So I'm super
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  - excited that as we go into next month,
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  - we're gonna be in every one of our
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  - our markets,
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  - same month. And the reason we wanted to
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  - do it in the same month is to
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  - be able to kinda have a bigger impact.
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  - We have almost 4,000 volunteers signed up,
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  - for the mission at home. And it's basic
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  - services. Right? So we communicate to the community.
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  - We have primary care, mammography.
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  - We do
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  - shoes,
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  - food, dentistry, which is a huge need. And
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  - then so depending on the needs of the
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  - community, we kind of set it up for
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  - that one day on the weekend. But part
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  - of that is also
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  - making sure that if during the intake, if
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  - they don't have a primary care doctor, we
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  - can assign them either to one of our
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  - community clinics or one to the HQACs available
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  - in the in the community. So that is
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  - not a one and done event. It's just
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  - an entry point to give them access to
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  - the needs.
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  - That's amazing to hear. Thank you so much
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  - for sharing a bit with us about that.
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  - Now before we wrap up, I'm curious. How
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  - is Ascension preparing for the future of health
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  - care more broadly?
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  - Well, in part, it's our portfolio changes. You
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  - know, as we see the migration towards ambulatory
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  - settings,
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  - we also see changes in CMS as more
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  - codes come out of the hospital.
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  - We're invested in our existing hospitals,
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  - just to refresh the plan, refresh the medical
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  - equipment. It should be a pristine place to
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  - get care, but we think the acuity is
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  - gonna increase.
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  - Our footprint on the ambulatory side
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  - is gonna quadruple,
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  - in the next year.
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  - That that kind of sets us up for
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  - the future as more and more procedures move
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  - into ambulatory setting. You know, we have the
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  - portfolio to be able to kinda match that.
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  - That's amazing to hear. Well, Eduardo, thank you
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  - so much for joining us on the podcast
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  - today. This has been an amazing discussion. I'm
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  - excited for the growth of Ascension and look
• 9:32
  - forward to connecting with you again soon. Thanks,
• 9:34
  - Laura. Appreciate the invite.